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Matt Hartley launches Sort It, Southeastern consumer campaign

Conservative Parliamentary Candidate Matt Hartley has launched a new consumer campaign to bring about change in the “atrocious service” that local commuters receive from Southeastern trains.

Cllr Matt Hartley, who is standing for Greenwich & Woolwich in next May's General Election, has launched the ‘Sort It, Southeastern’ petition following growing dissatisfaction amongst local commuters. The petition calls on the train operating company, frequently cited as amongst the worst in the UK, to improve service to customers and communication when things go wrong, introduce longer 12-carriage trains on all routes going through the Royal Borough and commit to restoring the soon-to-be-severed link to Charing Cross from stations on the Greenwich Line.

The move follows the government’s announcement of £70m investment for improvements to the service as part of an extension to the Southeastern franchise until 2018. The ‘Sort It, Southeastern’ campaign aims to utilise commuters’ ‘strength in numbers’ as paying customers to hold the company accountable during that time.

Matt said: “As a commuter myself, I am all too familiar with the absolutely atrocious service we receive from Southeastern. The government has arranged for a much-needed and welcome £70m investment in the service – and it is now down to Southeastern to deliver improvements. I’ve launched this new consumer campaign to hold this company’s feet to the fire to make sure we get the change we need.

"In particular, few people realise that as it stands, next month will see the last ever trains to Charing Cross departing from Deptford, Greenwich, Maze Hill and Westcombe Park stations. This is not just to accommodate the London Bridge works, but a permanent loss of service that will hit Greenwich commuters hard. Southeastern needs to commit to work with Network Rail to restore this service after the London Bridge re-build completes in 2018.”

The petition can be signed online at www.sortitsoutheastern.com and signatures will be collected on station platforms over the coming months.